Town Center offers ‘that downtown feel’
Many folks may be surprised by the gradual unveiling of the much-anticipated King of Prussia Town Center, possibly expecting every tenant to fling open their doors at once.
The meticulous design of this outdoor lifestyle shopping center has always ruled out that sort of cookie-cutter approach, noted Tom Sebastian, senior vice president of development at The JBG Companies, the real estate investment, development and management firm behind the center.
“There are 17 buildings and each building has its own unique architecture, with vaulted ceilings and lots of glass, wood, stone, and landscaping,” Sebastian said. “Because we have 17 different buildings it’s impossible to build them all simultaneously, but between now and Thanksgiving you’ll see a lot more tenants open.”
The first locations in this pedestrian-friendly atmosphere, which captures and elevates the experience of being in a downtown urban environment, were the upscale Brazilian churrascaria steak house Fogo de Chao and Ulta Beauty in July, followed by L.A. Fitness the first week of August. Davio’s Northern Italian Steakhouse, b.good, Naf Naf Grill and REI are all debuting thismonth, followed by CityWorks Restaurant & Pour House, Hair Cuttery, Paladar Latin Kitchen & Rum Bar and Road Runner Sports in September.
King of Prussia Town Center will offer a walkable outdoor-oriented shopping experience that, ironically, many shoppers may find akin towhat The Plaza — now officially integrated into the fully enclosed King of Prussia Mall across the road — was designed to be in its early years in the ’60s and ’70s.
“The King of Prussia Town Center really responds to today’s consumer’s desire to have that allencompassing experience and get more of that downtown feel of discovering different restaurants and shops outdoors, and being outside and socializing in an integrated kind of experience,” noted the project’s publicist, Allie Seifert. “There really isn’t anything in the area like this. There are other town centers that are kind of cookie cutter, but this is so robust and unique.”
Sebastian allowed that King of Prussia Town Center will be a different type of destination than the mall.
“Ours will be a more fre- quent destination. We’re right next door to Wegmans, which is a weekly shopping trip for people. We have L.A. Fitness, a state-ofthe-art health club, which will be another daily destination for people. They generate a regular flow of people. One of the things that occurred to us when we started the project five years ago,” he added, “is that King of Prussia didn’t have a great outdoor shopping center. The mall is world-renowned and a great destination, but if you want to have a nice evening with your spouse and your family where you go out for a nice email and then spend the rest of the evening kind of after a meal drinking in the ambience, the mall is not the kind of place that offers that kind of experience. Walk up and down Main Street and the town square across fromFogo and you’ll see that we really invested a lot ofmoney into building a first-class project.”
Among the unique embellishments here will be a lawn featuring a pavilion